One of the things I learned in shooting for newspapers, is this: rainy days are good for “weather pictures”, like this (which incidentally is my assignment photo, as per yesterday’s assignment):

"Red Umbrella", The Distillery District, Toronto, 8/2012 (Photo: Michael Willems)

My tip of the day for you: on rainy days, look for wet reflections and colourful umbrellas.

(Shot with manual focus 45mm prime TS-E lens, 1Ds MkIII full-frame camera).

Sometimes these daily posts can be very short and still be very beneficial, don’t you think?)

OK, here’s one more shot, a “decisive moment”.

Running in the rain (Photo: Michael Willems)

It is rare that I feature photos not by me here, but today I will. And for a reason. As you know, I have been talking about photographing your environment. And you should, for many reasons: I just found a great example of why.

At the art gallery where I am having my show, I was yesterday afternoon reading “Photography Year 1977”, a Time-Life book with truly amazing photos. Beautiful.

One caught my eye – a Hopper, almost, I immediately thought (and Hopper is my favourite 20th century painter). The photo was by American photographer Stephen Shore. A photographer I had heard of in passing – but now that I looked at his work in detail, I am amazed and impressed, and reinvigorated as a photographer.

The image in the Time-Life book shows the terrifying (and terrifyingly moving) starkness of a small Saskatchewan town’s Main Street.  This photo, it turns out, was recognised not just by Time-Life and me, but also by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, on whose web site it is displayed:

Here’s the photo: click the link.

And then I had the idea of looking up this street on StreetView. And yes, there it is:

Here from Google is the same view as in the original, just about:

Wow. That street has become more stark, if anything. I wonder of the people living there and running their businesses there know about their street’s fame? If I were them I would buy a print, cost what it may.

Anyway – this is why it is great to photograph your environment. And yourself. And your loved ones. And your muse. And your relatives. And the rest of your life. So you can go back later to compare, do time and space travel, feel intimately how strange and moving and mysterious life is.  Art’s most important need is that it moves you.

Another Summer Snap tip: shoot detail. Even detail that you are not sure you will be using, like the shots below. I took those yesterday while walking from my car to the Kodiak Gallery, where my exhibit is on (see www.michaelsmuse.com) until the end of the month.

You take detail shots to add back story but also to get phootd of patterns, textures, etc that you may want to use for something later. I bet I;ll use some of these.

All were taken with the 45mm tilt-shift lens on the 1Ds Mark III body. That’s much like a “nifty fifty”, a 50mm lens on a full frame (or a 35mm on your crop cameras).

I could go on (and I did). The point is clear, not just snaps of smiley people. And also – I used manual exposure and manual focus for all these. Just saying: the simplest camera/lens can be just fine!

A rainy day means you can take no photos.

Scrap that. A rainy day is great. A few examples, from a few hours ago in Toronto:

That was at Torontos Distillery District, where the “To Find A Muser” exhibit is on this month (www.michaelsmuse.com).

• Underexpose, make it look as dark as it is. Colours will look saturated. A rain scene si dark, so make it look dark.
• White balance may want to be “Cloudy”. Or do it afterward, as long as you shoot RAW.
• Or “expose to the right” and underexpose in postproduction (which is what I do, to decrease noise even further).
• Kee the pics simple.
• Look for reflections.
• Wipe your camera with a cloth when it gets wet.
• Look for nice reflections, nice surfaces, raindrops.

When you do that, you will get wonderful photos even in “bad”weather – which is really good weather for photographers.

These were from today. I got wet, but my camera was fine and the pictures make a very nice change.

I used the TS-E 45 tilt-shift lens to be able to shoot at f/2.8 an still keep the pictures sharp from foreground to background. Else you may have to go to a higher ISO or use a tripod.

I recommend you always try to shoot them. You may be surprised by the evocative images you get: rain moves us and its mood is good to get down into an image.